Maya tried to hang back as the armies began to clash, but the flow of the troops was nearly impossible to fight against. Despite her best efforts, she found herself being pushed to the forefront of the battle, with battle echoing all around her. The green haired girl looked around in despair, watching as magic bombarded the soldiers all around her. This is the absolute worst place to be. Why am I here? Why why why why why-
Her mental turmoil was placed to the side momentarily as she realized somebody was charging her. It was a common foot soldier, relatively weak, but he had a sword and shield and she didn't. Her eyes widened and she froze to the spot, terrified; as the man swung his sword down, however, her body moved on its own. She dove to the side, the blade barely grazing her side but not doing any major damage. She moved to lash back, letting instinct take over as she grabbed the man's unhelmed skull and activated Absorb.
The man's eye's rolled back in his skull, slumping to the ground; Maya stumbled back, taking deep breaths as she realized what she had just done. She belatedly realized that her breathing had evened out considerably; the influx of mana she had just absorbed had done wonders for her nerves, as loathe as she was to admit it. A quick check alleviated her worst fears; the man was still alive. She still wasn't a murderer. She tucked the reassurance into the back of her head as she grabbed the man's shield; he wouldn't be needing this anymore, and she could certainly use it. She stood up and backed her way back into her lines, hoping she wouldn't need to do that to anybody else.
--
HP: 99 (3 damage taken from graze, 2 restored from Spellsoul) MP: 119% (-10% for Absorb casting, +4% from Absorb effect) Posts until Regen: 4 Cooldowns: Absorb (3 posts)
Without much of a warning, The entire army began to charge. Shen stood rather bewildered as soldiers brushed past him. "Move it Squinty!" A Rune Knight shouted, shoving Shen out of the way with his shoulder in to another Knight, who knocked him back. He really didn't know what he was doing. After being tossed around like a pinball Shen finally planted his feet, gritted his teeth and shot forward. He moved like a shadow through the army of Knights, bewildering those he past who saw nothing but a blur. Nearing the front, Shen leaped from the crowd, rising high above the spears and staves and glided through the air like a kite with his white robe fluttering in the breeze. The Navrick Soldiers drew near to the front lines of the Rune Knights. Shen waved one hand in front of him and his other behind and began to rapidly rotate as he fell towards the Navrick army. The soldiers who mocked him earlier watched in amazement as Shen landed before the Navrick front lines and thrust his hands forward, generating a tremendously powerful blast of wind that blew away what appeared to be an entire regiment of soldiers. The explosive force sent them high in to the air and left Shen standing alone between the two armies for a brief period.
For a moment, Shen seemed rather pleased with his effort, however the soldiers he'd blown away were but a drop from an ocean. The two armies clashed all around him, soldiers ran in to one another no more elegantly than a child smashes his toys together. Immediately the sounds of roaring and tormented screams filled the air, and for Shen's empowered senses it was overwhelmingly horrible. A single Navrick soldier charged towards him with his axe held high, ready to cleave his head in two. The Martial artist instinctively thrust his palm in to the soldier's gut and threw him back. However that was no means to an end. The soldier got back on to his feet, and picked up his axe and charged Shen once more. He swung and Shen leaned away to avoid it, and the man continued to swing and Shen continued to make him miss. Finally, the Martial Artist kicked the foot out from under the Soldier and made him fall forward, and Shen thrust his hand in to the Soldier's back with great force. The soldier would not get up again, and the former Pacifist was in disarray. He did not know what he was expecting from this battle, but he knew that he was now committed to finishing what he started.
Air began to circulate violently around his body, and veins bulged from around his eyes. The faint outline of scales covered his hands and around his neck and his muscles grew slightly. Empowered with the strength of a Dragon, Shen began to make his way through the battlefield, encountering Navrick soldier's left and right. Each one that attempted to stab, slice or cleave him found that their weapons could not reach him. His guiding hands pushed their weapons away from him and made them miss and with each failed attempt he'd plunge his palm in to their bodies and shatter their bones. Rune Knights began to form up behind Shen, picking off the scraps he'd leave behind and together they'd begin to tear in to the Navrick forces.
And while you are sitting indoors waiting for the storm to pass I will be outside dancing in the rain
❧
So it begun. The clashing of swords, the rumble of mighty powers, the screams and yells of the victors and the fallen. While the Rune Knights and other mages who were on the Magic Council's side all rushed toward the Navrick forces, the dragon slayer found herself left behind at the start, standing back, crimson eyes big and staring at the war happening before her eyes. She had heard the command for the fighting to begin, but her body didn't seem to have listened. It was a big thing to ask, to fight despite there being a chance of death or major injury. But yet people who signed up for these types of things knew this, and went along with it anyway. Astrid too, had accepted and acknowledge it, and had been ready to fight in her homeland's name. But now that she was actually here... It was a whole different story, seeing it in the flesh. So instead of trying to deal with it and push her fear behind her like anyone else would, the light mage's mind took a different course of action... And shut down. Completely shutting out the entire situation, Astrid was now like a mere husk of a human. Empty of thought or will. Which is why, when a certain bright and colorful butterfly fluttered by her face, she was easily fascinated by it. To her mind, following that butterfly seemed one thousand times better than almost dying. Turning her gaze to the passing vibrantly colored insect the ace began tailing it slowly like a child, taking slow steps to keep up with its steady pace, even when its course suddenly turned in and out of the edges of the battlefield. But despite the horrible things going on around her, both Rune Knights and Nacrick soldiers falling left and right, the musician's gaze never faulted, continuing to gaze longingly up at the butterfly and shuffle through the large crowd to keep up.
It began! It began, indeed! War was secretly a scary idea to the relatively peaceful tanuki. While she liked action, adventure, and new things to do, the idea of complete and utter violence was not exactly pleasing. Nevertheless, she had been asked to assist the Navrick Kingdom, but by pretending to be on the side of the magic council. If anything, she would be first attacked by a Navrick soldier long before she would run into a clash with a rune knight or someone on the side of those who were 'legal'. She was in disguise, after all, and would quietly gather information to pass on to other spy messengers and more. However, her biggest task would be picking off enemies quietly, like an assassin. Omen was a part of the old Black Rose, before Kakuma and the Runi Sanctuary had disappeared and the robot, Cassie, had gone berserk and destroyed their former guildhall. While in Omen, Izayuki had learned the techniques of gathering intelligence, spying, and assassination from Lexa and the other members of the faction. It was an art, of sorts, and one that was not hard for the youthful Youkai to pick up on.
So here she was, ready to do her job. With everyone suddenly in action, Azise did not hesitate to target a few people who either smelled of the side of the Magic Council, or she recognized as enemy facesfaces while having derped around before the fighting started. In actuality, she was getting to know her opponents' appearances, so she could easily identify and put them down later. Targeting a specific individual who seemed to be rushing blindly into battle, the Kitsune vanished from where she stood, reappeared right next to him, slashed his throat - killing him, and appeared right back where she stood, all almost within the blink of an eye. The only thing that would have been noticed to distinguish her skillful use of teleportation would be the blood lingering on her claws, which she easily licked off, enjoying the taste of blood that she so rarely received.
On top of using Swiftstep, Azise utilized her perception manipulation to keep attention off of her. Being an Ayakashi meant that she had access to many brilliant powers that went along with disguising herself and tricking others. What better place to use such abilities than on the battlefield? Little did the Kitsune know that as she continued to traverse the fields of war, she was drawing herself closer to an ever so familiar scent. The magic presence was well hidden, but the scent of heat and semi-avian, and a distinguished sort of human became quite clear to the keen nose of the fox. She really expected no less. He was there because he was the guild master of a legal guild, and the magic council had gotten word to him much sooner than Navrick had, she could only assume. Nevertheless, having him on the playing field as a trump card for the rune knights did not bode well for her client. Noticing him gave her a fair idea of what she would have to do; and if she could, she would have fun with it.
With a clever grin, the Kitsune would shift into an average-sized red fox with golden eyes and begin dashing towards the Wizard Saint. Before she reached him, she would halt, give a friendly bark and shake of her tail to avoid surprising him, which was never a good idea to do to a soldier with his guard up on a battlefield. Once her amiable greeting was finished, the red fox would attempt to leap up for him and hang onto the back of his shoulder with her forelegs, while the rest of her would dangle from him as she tried to steady herself, wagging her tail in various directions both playfully and for balance. "Hey there, cute stuff~" Azise chimed in a joyous tone, all while careful to ensure that her voice differed from the tanuki that Elyx was familiar with. She had more of a flirtatious edge, and her tone was much deeper, and more grown up. In the meantime, she concealed her magic completely off, while her Youkai alterations in perceptions and transformation would do the trick to completely change her scent, type of magic, and more. "Elyx Reiaki, is it, if I am not mistaken? Guild Master of Golden Phoenix and the First God of Ishval? You're the strongest soldier with us, then, I would assume? Why aren't you assisting the others?" she would ask in a curious manner, tilting her head.
TAGS;; -- Azise Riyoshi -- Magic Council (Navrick in Disguise) -- Kitsune Youkai -- Ice Demon Slayer (?) -- Encountering Elyx Reiaki and Ignite @Elyx Reiaki
Takumi was rather startled when the whole army began to charge. The young slayer shot a look at his exceed, who nodded before hoisting him into the air. The slayer and exceed soared over the battlefield, Takumi struggling to come up with a spell he could use to help his side. The slayer wracked his brains for a moment before coming up with an idea. A spell that could target multiple people at once... "The Cruel Blossom!" roared the young man, a huge blossom about 3 feet in diameter appearing above his head. The blossom would explode, doing D rank damage to anyone within the epicenter of the blast, while doing slightly less damage to anyone still in the blast radius. The slayer himself was knocked out of the air by the explosion, but he managed to land on his feet with a huge grin on his face. This, this was going to be fun.
Mp= 90% Hp= 195/200
spells used:
Name: The Cruel Blossom Rank: D Type: Lightning, offensive Duration: instant Cooldown: 2 posts Description: This spell creates a huge blossom of lightning energy, which then explodes and deals damage to everyone within a 15 meter radius. The blossom itself is about 3 feet in diameter. Those in the epicenter receive full rank damage, while those outside of the epicenter receive 75% rank damage Strengths: -doing damage to multiple targets.(as many as are in range, up to 10)
Weaknesses: -Highly destructive(can destroy the terrain) -does damage to any allies within range(the same amount as any enemy would receive) as well as 25% rank damage to the user themself
Part 1 - Meletzo is involved, Shen's attack is mentioned here, Natalia doesn't see Meletzo fit for combat at first but wishes her goodluck.
Part 2 - Merlin and Dubhlainn talking a few days before the war begins. Merlin mentions the plan and a potential enemy that might come to Fiore
Part 3 - Natalia returns to the Citadel, preparing the mercenary forces and the main regiment of Navrick. Nicolette is concerned with this part. Natalia intended to boost the morale of the Mercenaries of Navrick but somehow the main regiment overheard her speech. Crimzon can be involved in this part.
Part 4 - The battle plan begins, while the vanguard and front line regiments engage the enemy and test their strength, turncoats and saboteurs eliminate most of the rune knight's siege weapons and fire support units.
Let us begin.
Part 1 @meletzo(@Shen mentioned)
With a puff from her cigarette, Natalia walked towards the masses of soldiers as she drew a huge barrel from her holsters. As the exchange of men between sides taken place she managed to shoot 3 rune knights down on their heads, such accurate marksmanship wouldn’t go unnoticed and just as Meletzo was backing herself away Natalia shot the weakened man and grabbed her on the shoulder.
She stared at her in the eyes almost as if annoyed by the sight of her.
“First time participating in a war kid?” She exhaled a puff cloud as she grabbed her cigar and threw it right at the open mouth of the man she just shot in front of her. It would appear that a corpse seems to be breathing hard nicotine as to mock the dead soldier.
“You don’t seem like the type of person who would do this willingly, I’m actually curious why you would participate only to flinch before an enemy soldier”. Spears were flying, a huge wind by the slayer Shen blew a portion of the Navrick’s front line away as it would seem that they are closer to one of their powerhouses than they thought.
A few more rounds were squeezed out of that huge barrel of hers as she shot soldiers with perfect headshots; some were shot to the knee and others by the neck. She then turned away from her enemies and headed back to the citadel.
“Remember to go by three orders. First order, don’t die. If your number’s up, get out.” She flicked a grenade and turned to the charging platoon of rune knights and threw it at them only to explode and send a bunch of soldiers flying. It created a huge blast of dust and smoke, lying there were the enemy soldiers struck, one lost a leg, the other was no longer breathing and the face of a rune knight can no longer be recognized as human.
“Lastly, hide and if you’re lucky then catch the enemy off guard and strike. So are you going back to the citadel now? I can assure you that once Navrick sends out the main platoon you’ll have a hard time running back to the citadel. The choice is yours…” She turned away from Meletzo and waved her hand in goodbye, will they both see each other again after this resolves? Who knows….
…. For all Natalia can tell, there’s a third party within this war that’s been waiting to present themselves. Meletzo can only pray that she can get out of this alive.
Part 2
“Know this Dubhlainn, there is no guarantee that either you or I will get one of the pieces of the Infinity Clock when the battle starts and when it ends, therefore I have this item prepared.” Merlin went under his desk to retrieve a small box and present it to Dubhlainn. Uncovering the lid, revealed a small stamp.
After looking towards the item and recognizing it, he looked back at Merlin then back to the item again and started chuckling. “So you’re stamping on one of the parts of the infinity clock?”
“I am serious about this Dubhlainn”
“What of its significance? If you plan on stamping a magic imprint on it, if the Rune Knights were to get hold of it for an example, they would notice the imprint almost immediately and they will dispel it, making such effort useless.”
“Mmm indeed you have a good point there but this isn’t just no ordinary magic imprint, unlike what runes the Rune Knights use, this is a Gaelic Symbol which is a language unknown to the rune knights, in other words it is the tongue of the Fae” Merlin stated. Somehow Dubhlainn isn’t amused.
“So?”
“It contains colorless True magic Dubhlainn, something similar to one of the properties you wield. Let’s say all runes are like ink, think of this as a magic stamp with permanent Ink on it. When the mark is applied on a magical device or a fragment of it, it will imprint the symbol into the part but then it won’t be noticed by any Runic master no matter how many times they’d perform maintenance. Because its colorless true magic, it is assimilated as part of it, the gaelic symbols can only be applied on ancient artifacts with notable powers, otherwise the symbol won’t imprint on regular objects so it’s going to be easy to tell whether or not the item is the false.“
“What happens if its inserted and for what purpose?”
“It will be something I can use in the near future, consider it as insurance in case someone tries to misuse the Infinity clock.”
“You plan on stopping the cast time of the Infinity Clock?”
“That’s only one feature to it, but this isn't information I’ll divulge to you Dubhlainn.”
“Then I’m not going with your favor if you cannot tell the details, should Savage Skull manage to possess it then only you will be able to stem our plans.”
“What if it is used against your people then? Who will stop it then? You? As far as I can tell a lot of wicked men misuse the Infinity Clock some were even foolish to braze through its power only for their mentality to dissolve permanently. As much as possible Dubhlainn I would like it if you carry this out besides I have another reason why you should imprint this.”
“How do I know you’re not lying and that you’ll use it for yourself?”
“Because a lot of mages abuse their magic, some only believed it as a force that exists but never came to its true understanding; you know this better than I do Dubhlainn as we’re both men of old. Nothing good will come out of the Infinity Clock activating. Besides… only someone extremely powerful, close to a Godly force that has knowledge over the Gaelic runes may destroy it without destroying the Clock. If the symbol is somehow discovered by the rune knights and that they try to remove it, it will destroy the Infinity Clock altogether. However to destroy a Gaelic Rune symbol will confirm my suspicions.”
“And what is that?”
“An enemy nobody wants…not even I”
Part 3 (@Crimzon mentioned if he can hear this and Nicolette)
Natalia would have returned to the Citadel by now, re-entering the chambers were the Navrick Archive mages would be.
“We’re ready to launch the Graphical interface mam.”
“Make sure to use the totems as an extension for our field of view” Natalia said as she dials her phone to call Dubhlainn. In a moment the archive mages were able to produce a simulated hologram of the battlefield displaying each squad’s current status. It was a full visual of the battle field and the territory of Navrick, now if Princess Nicolette were to come see this, she’d have better resource material so that she can command troop deployment.
That if she even has any experience as a field commander. If Nicolette desired it, she’d make full use of it. If she had already gone to the field of combat then it could be troublesome as the graphical interface resides inside the city. Natalia headed outside the graphical interface and into the military court where a line of men are getting suited for battle, behind them was a transport car loaded with explosives.
“Gentlemen, you know why we are here today and as of this moment I, Natalia Kaminski will be one of the commanding officers of this battle.”
Former Lieutenant Natalia Kaminski used to be a member of the Black Hyenas an organization that went to bad terms with the Black Rose in its early days. With Natalia’s faction wiped out, she worked as a free mercenary in Fiore and met Dubhlainn on a job.
“The moment you put “THOSE” on you will be faced it adversary and certain death, understand we are fighting a war which we cannot afford to lose. The Navrick Kingdom has in fact has an insufficient amount of manpower on their side but that is why we Mercenaries are here today. Understand that once a soldier steps into a life of war, they can never go home even if they come back alive you will never be the same person ever again.” Natalia placed the transmitter on her ear as Dubhlainn answers and continues to hear from Natalia’s speech.
“From this day forth, you are no longer boys who would play around, today you are men. From this day and onwards you will fight and die to protect the Kingdom of Navrick! And on this day we will stand together and we will fight together or fall together. The Kingdom of Fiore has sent the Rune Knights towards us not only because of the Infinity Clock but to colonize and put the country under its mercy, are we to allow a tyrannical nation to come and take everything we have built and stand for? Will the blood and sweat of Navrick’s ancestors only fall to the future of Fiore?”
“I understand, we are not powerful as Fiore who controls a nation of powerful mages, a nation who wields the power of nature, the power of the Gods and slayers, but through thick and thin humanity endured those trials and survived the tyranny of the Gods, we rebelled and persisted and outlived those in the founts of power and that is exactly the reason why we are here today! To challenge a nation of mages, a nation of Gods and to rebel and show them that ours is not theirs to take! We shall prove to them that not all miracles are attained by those who wield the powers of magic but to those who’s willing to believe, to fight their best and to fight to their last. Our victory will forever leave a page in the history of all Earthland that a nation who lacks any military power won and remained strong against the storm, the tide of tyranny of Fiore! RISE UP SOLDIERS TODAY IS A TESTAMENT OF OUR HUMANITY! TODAY WE REBEL AGAINST THE GODS!”
Soldiers who heard her speech were invigorated and had their morale boosted, Dubhlainn left off a smile.
“I’ll be there in 10 minutes, until then Natalia.. you know exactly what to do.” Communications ended there as Natalia started giving out the command.
“Unit Ze come in, begin the mission.”
Part 4 @Mercenaries vs the Rune Knights Siege Regiments
In the battlefield..
“I repeat, the mission has begun and remember do not engage of the mages, you are not equipped to fight them but you are equipped for one task only… “ Natalia said over the transmitter.
“Understood Natalia…”
The Rune Knights have brought heavy machinery, a number of siege weapons and fire support to which they are planning to use to take down the walls of the Kingdom of Navrick. The mentioned special units Natalia contacted had only a few targets in mind….
To eliminate all sources of firepower, to bring down the siege weapons and to desecrate all possible biomechanical entities that can be of any threat to Navrick. Fortunately there were more than enough men that intermingled with the Rune Knight’s siege units. They were turncoats, assailants, saboteurs that went undercover in becoming part of the Rune Knight’s military regiments. Every ten seconds, 5 siege weapons owned by the Rune Knights were destroyed and all means of fire support are lost. This was only phase one of the battle plan, destroying what powers the Rune Knights may possess other than its mages.
“This is unit Ze reporting, we are engaging the enemy, the left their defenses wide open and have destroyed most of their machinery” reported the unit.
“Perfect…. Now the Council will have to rely on their mages as siege weapons now but they will never expect what’s to come next. Silver Fang unit you’re up!”
The sudden charge certainly did startle Kirara. She had never been involved in a battle organized on such a grand scale. The amount of participants was overwhelming, and their commanders seemed to be all but nice. Her skin crawled as she charged with rhe rest of the troops, trying not to be trampled by the horde, considering she was about half their size. As she ran, she took out her rapier, though it still had been sheathed in the umbrella, and prepared to attack. She was startled, but she as ready for wsr nonetheless.
And so it began. Though the giant did once stand just ahead of everyone else on his side, as soon as the horns sounded, hundreds of people ran past him at full speed with every intention of preventing this clock from being taken away. The chaos started ahead of him; he was not immediately thrilled by the concept of war but at times it was necessary in order to prevent catastrophes from befalling the land. What was the man to do at a time such as this? Fight. Protect. His cousin was staying behind as a last defense, which meant that he had to be the aggressor of the two.
There were a couple of different things he could do in his current situation, though only one really worked best for him personally. In order to provide the biggest opening for his allies, the best option was to simply blow a giant hole straight through the middle of enemy forces. Thankfully, Hero had mastered a rather reputable spell he mastered not too long ago which was capable of doing just that. Now he had to ensure that his allies knew what he was going to do so that they could be out of the blast range considering he was going to be using it at full power. What he needed right now was a messenger, someone who could relay a message to everyone without alerting the enemy about what he was going to do.
"I'm sorry to barge into your brain but I can help you with that. I'm with the Rune Knights as a telepathy magic user. In order for me to send the message though, I need you to repeat what you were just thinking though."
A voice appeared within his mind and the giant instantly tensed up, shutting the voice out completely. A magic like that was not something he could trust lightly, since the enemy could have just as well had someone like that too. Another thing that was suspicious... why would they have needed him to repeat what he thought if this person could have heard everything from the beginning? There was something going on and he did not like it one bit. Coming to such a conclusion, the man ran over to Elyx's position quickly and informed him of his thoughts on a couple of different matters that he had already thought about earlier. His thoughts now had to remain guarded, which meant he could not literally think of what he wanted to talk about to his cousin. He simply told him said information, which was difficult to not think about at the same time. If the enemy had truly gotten into their ranks, they were about to be sorry they tried to get past Hero and even more so the Wizard Saint. After speaking with the young wizard, Yamamoto darted off again though this time with the intention of opening up the middle of enemy forces for his allies. As he ran out, he passed a woman whom was headed toward his cousin; they looked vaguely familiar but the man paid it no real mind. He had more important matters to attend to currently.
Every step he made was rather loud and made the ground shutter, since he was running pretty fast. As Hero ran, ethernano began being gathered into his body and it gained a light golden hue which could have only really been visible if one were only a couple of feet away from him. Gathered magic was steadily focused into his right arm, even as he ran among his comrades. He was large enough for everyone to see coming though at the moment no one knew what exactly he was planning. Eventually it had finished charging up and it was ready to be launched. Being so, the giant yelled out to his allies as loudly as possible for them to hear.
"MOVE OUT OF THE WAY! ONE RUNWAY COMING RIGHT UP!"
Moments after saying that, Yamamoto came upon the enemy line that was fighting with the Rune Knights and brought his right arm back. Then he launched himself forward and said, "Serious Series..." His fist began being launched forward at full force, and as the strike launched outward, he yelled aloud, "SERIOUS PUNCH!" Everything seemed to fall silent for a brief moment before the shock wave and the blast happened. Fifty meters long and wide of destruction. Enemy soldiers flew through the air like ragdolls and suddenly a way through enemy lines became at the very least a lot more open than it was earlier. Now Hero's allies along with himself could really get this show on the road.
Time to show the country of Navrick that we will do whatever it takes for the safety of both Fiore, the world we all live in, and every possible dimension that could collapse by using the artifact, the Infinity Clock.
The battle had begun in earnest, and as the flashing of blades and spells mixed a particular sound into the air. To most, it would be a sound which brought anguish, fear, worry, to Erika it just brought a nice melody. Even she had to admit she was a bit too cruel at times and enjoyed the sound of an open battle a little too much. So much so that she merely sat down at one of the tables within the command area and just began to observe the battlefield since she didn't have much else to do and didn't like to rush in blind, that is what her various clones were for. Disregarding some of the weaker mages she spied on rune knight and navrick alike from within the ranks, noting that there were some brutes and cunning planners, but more importantly, the guards of the leaders were very strong. One man in particular posed a problem for her if he got active, so she was glad that another woman managed to grab his attention. If this battle went too south for one side she would have to make it interesting. While she wasn't doing anything but relaxing just yet, she was pondering over how to keep this battle going for as long as possible.
And after a quite motivating speech, Mura found the army quite suddenly moving. The battlecries of the Rune Knights ignited the happening, and as if every person in the army was the fragments of a large wave in the ocean, they rushed into the battlefield that appeared so vast in the background of the hordes. Already a moment after, loud shockwaves could be heard from the front, clearing out the first groups of Navrick soldiers. Obviously, he couldn’t but blend into the wave of Fiore mages and become one of many individuals that struggled forth to clash the other army from the lands of Navrick. It was quite the strange name, now that he thought about it, but the mere thought would let him lose his concentration and thus let him fall behind. Alright, focus, and complete focus… well, he was also very interested in meeting/fighting the Navrick soldiers, warriors from another country that only reached his ears lately. When it came to the point that he could die, then it reminded him of that plutonian lady. That was his first experience with the term death, and he regretted none of it at the moment. Besides, Fiore was slowly becoming the country that he felt like belonging to, and it’d gotten to the point where he would do his best to protect it…
During the charge, Kyuken and Zirconis suddenly went up and suggested Mura to proceed with one of them. “Here, use my soul! I can guide you through the forces!” Kyuken spoke up, while Zirconis pushed Kyuken back and spoke: “No! Use my soul; you’ll need plenty of strength to get through!” “Hey, skill rather than strength! You know that very well, Zir-san!” “Would you listen to yourself?! As if a skilled weakling can do anything!” Their heads began pushing against each other as they argued, while Mura was but a few meters away from their first opponent; a heavily armed knight with the Navrick symbol on his chest. Without Kyuken or Zirconis, Mura quickly preferred to engage without spending mana by landing his entire body weight on one foot that was planted into the armor of the knight. Leaning forward, he made the knight fall down in a direct hit, using the extra weight on the foothold to flip upwards. Just like a few others at the front, including the launched ones, he was amongst the levitating people, having a wide view over the army of several, perhaps thousands or millions of knights. His scale dimensions were poor, in which he had nothing to fear. He stayed midair for a while now, spotting that the warriors below him began shooting what appeared to be spheres of oil at him. Completely soaked in oil, he had a reasonable idea of their next move. The mages that were against him smirked and flicked their fingers, in which small sparks ignited around Mura’s body, thus making the oil burn. In the blink of an eye, water erupted from his skin; soft, unharmable water instead of that fierce fire that was expected by the enemies. “I guess that’s quite efficient… and it doesn’t take much mana,” he commented, while spotting the mages desperately sending off fireballs. Another element that he could overcome as he rapidly charged downwards to their level, suddenly swinging his katana off like a soft feather across their armors. As thick as the metals were, he expected the soft areas to be around the joints, in which Harusame was especially focused to chop them there. Before they knew of it, their arms and legs were disabled as they fell to their knees in defeat, about seven warriors down and many more to go. “… So, who’re you going to use, Mura..?” Kyuken asked mid-battle…
Bowing to the general once more Aether turned for face the oncoming army as he connected his mind to her once again. I shall keep a connection between us, but I won’t do any transmitting until you think of me or I have valuable information. Aether transmitted, his chibi appearing in her vision once more. The only thing that will be a constant is this map. Aether explained, a small map appearing in the generals vision that portrayed the entire battlefield, Navricks army highlighted green whilst the Rune Knights were highlighted in blue, mages that stood out on the Rune Knight side and the commander were marked with a red dot. This map will update automatically as I survey the land and I’ll automatically place a marker on any mages that stand out in the Rune Knight’s forces. If you want to issue orders to a commander I can relay the information, just give me a call and tell me which commander it’s going to, I’ll send it in real time. The chibi bowed as the map began to change, highlighted marks began to move in on the Navrick forces on the map. Now as a part of the defensive forces, I must also do my part. The image of him then stood still, blinking from time to time as the map in the General’s vision updated itself, showing a large gap within the Navrick frontline forces.
Aether himself had already began his attempt to hold back the forces of the Magic Council, hundreds thousands of bone knives danced around in the air around him, their form shifting and changing to that of broadhead arrows. If Aether had to focus only on communication he would be easily overwhelmed from connecting thousands of minds and relaying them all, so for now he would focus on the one mind and distribute orders when they came to him, allowing him to take part in the battle but for now he would simply wait for the enemy to fill in the gap created by their giant of a man, carefully watching over the scene as he calculated the speeds and angle of each arrow he would send into their lines.
As they closed in he caused the arrows to remain still in the air around him as they began to spin, faster and faster before the tips seem to be a solid cone before unleashing them all in one huge volley at speeds faster than the average arrow. No-one would be capable of detecting the intended targets of the arrows unless they possessed a similar birds-eye-view ability as Aether, or were capable of detecting changes in the air currents. As the arrows collided with their targets thousands of Rune Knight soldiers would fall, the arrows piercing straight through their chests due to the rotational penetration power of their spin, clearing out all the foot soldiers that began to push through into the defensive line, leaving the mages that had created the push unharmed unless they made an effort to defend against the arrows or catch them. Their shape and rotational force preventing them from being carried by the wind and digging into anything that they struck.
As Aether’s attack commenced the map updated, showing 1/5th of the Rune Knights forces disappearing from the map in quickly, like a tide quickly receding back into the ocean. Aether began to make his way away from his volley point, making sure that the opposing mages or commander would have no way of knowing where he was or where the next volley was coming from, for as long as he wielded his staff, they could only confirm where he was by sight, leaving Umbra with the general to defend against any ranged attacks.
Telepathic Communication: Aether is capable of telepathically connecting his mind with multiple others over large distances, communing messages and commands through a chibified version of himself appearing in their vision akin to that of an AI appearing in a HUD.
Birds-eye-view: Aether is capable of switching his sight from his current view to that of a top-down view (50m) of any battlefield taking place in the world, so long as he has knowledge that the battle is taking place.
Weapon:
Empty Space: Aether is completely hidden from all forms of sense (other than sight) and tracking whilst Space Weaver is in his possession, making it appear as though there is nothing there but empty space, tricking people into thinking that he is but an illusion.
Magic:
Nathir’s Will: The will of the Bone Demon bares down upon all bone within a specific area, allowing Aether to manipulate anything that is made of bone within a 30 meter radius around him (does not affect bone surrounded by living tissue)
Undead Lord: Upon becoming a lich Aether was given the title of Undead Lord by the memories of Nathir which reside within the lacrima, granting him complete domination over all forms of undead that are at least 1 rank below his own, whilst also granting him the ability to completely manipulate and change the shape of bones within his sphere of influence.
by Nicolette Clairefield 19th December 2016, 10:46 pm
And so the first deaths would begin of this war, and they would appear to be some of the rookie soldiers of Navrick. Mages would cast spells, Rune Knights would use their weapons and anti-magic to clear out those charging them, and the Navrick soldiers would only take out a small chunk in comparison. The only thing that kept losses at a manageable level was the totems that were speeding people up, though now that everyone was mixed together it was time to change what they did. Most of the totems still lived, many ignoring them in fear of what they might do, and would easily be set to give shields to her soldiers for a bit. That would help immensely and would give them a favorable advantage now that it was close enough for melee combat to begin.
Nicolette would hear something come out to her, someone claiming to now be a commanding officer giving some kind of speech. While empowering, it would be the girls own downfall. Nicolette was the general in charge here, and she would not have someone intervening with plans she had not spoken to her about. "Unknown woman, you will hereby stand down or be arrested for treason. You were not put into my commanding officers on my authority and you will be escorted off of whatever area you are trespassing on. Go peacefully, or die trying any other way!" With that she would turn to the one that had come too close to speak earlier, speaking to her in a calmer in-control tone. "Keep an eye out for anyone that might betray us. I just had an unknown broadcast that was claming to be an officer, one that I never hired nor was given by the King's Command." The woman wasn't sure if she could trust this girl, but with how the fight was going she had to hope that the mages hired were at least partially loyal.
With that done the one inside her head would explain some more and then create an automatically updating map for her to look over. It was dire, even with the mages helping on their side, but it was still a good chance that they survived this encounter. "Archers! Fire on their left flank of troops! Put a barrier of arrows between the front lines and their reinforcements!" With that said, a wall of burning arrows would be let loose in the area given unto them. These arrows, upon contact with a being or the ground, would spread that fire a few feet in each direction and continue to burn until put out.
notes:
Guys, please do not assume stuff for the Navrick side. They don't have anything unless the NPC posts mention it, or is somewhere else in an event topic/subforum info for it.
@Erika: You were the one asked to watch for traitors. @Crimson: She is watching map, but not currently giving orders through you. @Rune Knights + RK NPC: Left Flank is being bombarded with arrows.
Totems: Totems are now giving a B rank shield to ALL Navrick Soldiers and mages with them. It has an HP of 3 B rank spells before it fails.
by Alexander Fulbright 21st December 2016, 2:35 pm
Map courtesy of Shen Hakuhei
Clean Version:
Alexander was stopped on the battlefield, noticing a girl standing in shock of where she was. The man sucked a bit of air between his teeth before commanding the nameless soldiers to continue fighting. His eyes turned back to Astrid, noticing the fear of war digging it's claws into her. His annoyance with mages continue to grow as he noticed one of the mages, Astrid, staring off into nothingness. Using as much agility as he could muster, he ran towards Astrid before coming to a screeching halt in front of her.
"Hey, wake up," he said towards Astrid before placing a hand upon her shoulder and shook her a bit. "Hey! Hey! You're on a battlefield!" he shouted trying to get her to snap out of it. If she snaps out, Alexander smiles to her. "Don't worry, I'll keep you alive. Stick with me and we can get through this. Trust me, you'll come out unscathed," he said with a smile before something caused his ears to twitch a bit. The pulling of bowstrings and the whistling of the arrow's flight. Alexander moved his back between Astrid and the arrow, taking an arrow to the back left shoulder blade.
A little groan escaped the captain of the Rune Knights before taking a knee. "See, I told you that you'll be fine," Alexander said with a bit of a chuckle. His left arm went limp, readjusting the grip upon his weapon to his right hand. Warm red blood started to fall down his left arm as he turned his back to Astrid. "Hey, we got a war to fight, alright? So stick close and we'll get through this," he said. Beads of sweat started to form upon his forehead from the pain; hiding it to not show weakness to one of the mages under his control. Even though he dislikes mages, he isn't going to forsaken them.
Flashback wrote:Alexander started to walk away from the nobleman's house, gripping his hands into a firm fist. He was visibly shaking from the words he heard from the noble. "Bring my most expendable men? What kind of non-sense is that? Does he really want them to be fodder for this war he wants to make?" Alexander asked before approaching one of the high commanders of the Rune Knight approaching the Nobleman's house. Alexander perked up and saluted the High Commander. "How are you, sir?" he said in a curt and military-like manner.
"Captain Fullbright, just the person I wanted to see. Come, walk with me," the man said with a big smile upon his face. This caught Alexander off-guard as he waited for the Supreme Commander to turn around and walk off, standing a single pace behind and to his left.
"You do know why we are sending you to Navrick right?" One of the High Commanders asked.
"To get that artifact back from them, right? Something that powerful isn't something that should be in the hands of savages," Alexander responded gallantly, believing the mission, itself is a noble cause.
"To some extent, yes you are correct, Captain. But that isn't the only reason," the High Commander came to a halt with Alexander following behind afterward.
"What do you mean, High Commander?" Alexander asked inquisitively, standing and facing the High Commander.
"Since you are part of the Fullbright Family, you have a right to know. We plan on militarizing that weapon for annexation of Bosco," the man said as he turned and started to walk again, with Alexander following behind.
"Bosco? Why Bosco of all places?"
"They have something we want. Something that could turn us into a powerful country. No, into a powerful empire," the High Commander stated, causing Alexander to stop with him walking ahead. This caught the High Commander's attention, causing him to stop and look back towards Alexander.
"The thought of imperialism doesn't appeal to you, Captain Fullbright?"
"Well, our existence is to protect Fiore from rogue mages. It's not our responsibility to become an imperial force. What about the king?" Alexander asked.
The man simply laughed and turned his back and started walking again. Alexander returned to keeping pace with the High Commander. "Don't worry about him. He will know about this in due time."
The whistling of arrows could be heard easily as they started to rain on the battlefield. Alexander quickly grabbed Astrid's hand and started to swing his sword around, deflecting and smashing the arrows as they rained upon them. As he ran, he shouted out. "Destroy the Totems!" Alexander said as he raised his sword into the air once more and changed the flame enchantment on all weapons to an explosive enchantment. "Destroy the totems and break through!" --- TAG: @Ami / NOTES: Same deal. No post order, 5 days between posts.
Explosive Enchantment: All RK side members have their weapons enchanted with an explosive enchantment. Any attack made with a user's weapon causes a 30m explosion in a half-circle in front of them, dealing AoE Damage to everything in front of them.
"The Rune Knights Will Return To Glory!"
Alexander was stopped on the battlefield, noticing a girl standing in shock of where she was. The man sucked a bit of air between his teeth before commanding the nameless soldiers to continue fighting. His eyes turned back to Astrid, noticing the fear of war digging it's claws into her. His annoyance with mages continue to grow as he noticed one of the mages, Astrid, staring off into nothingness. Using as much agility as he could muster, he ran towards Astrid before coming to a screeching halt in front of her.
"Hey, wake up," he said towards Astrid before placing a hand upon her shoulder and shook her a bit. "Hey! Hey! You're on a battlefield!" he shouted trying to get her to snap out of it. If she snaps out, Alexander smiles to her. "Don't worry, I'll keep you alive. Stick with me and we can get through this. Trust me, you'll come out unscathed," he said with a smile before something caused his ears to twitch a bit. The pulling of bowstrings and the whistling of the arrow's flight. Alexander moved his back between Astrid and the arrow, taking an arrow to the back left shoulder blade.
A little groan escaped the captain of the Rune Knights before taking a knee. "See, I told you that you'll be fine," Alexander said with a bit of a chuckle. His left arm went limp, readjusting the grip upon his weapon to his right hand. Warm red blood started to fall down his left arm as he turned his back to Astrid. "Hey, we got a war to fight, alright? So stick close and we'll get through this," he said. Beads of sweat started to form upon his forehead from the pain; hiding it to not show weakness to one of the mages under his control. Even though he dislikes mages, he isn't going to forsaken them.
Flashback wrote:Alexander started to walk away from the nobleman's house, gripping his hands into a firm fist. He was visibly shaking from the words he heard from the noble. "Bring my most expendable men? What kind of non-sense is that? Does he really want them to be fodder for this war he wants to make?" Alexander asked before approaching one of the high commanders of the Rune Knight approaching the Nobleman's house. Alexander perked up and saluted the High Commander. "How are you, sir?" he said in a curt and military-like manner.
"Captain Fullbright, just the person I wanted to see. Come, walk with me," the man said with a big smile upon his face. This caught Alexander off-guard as he waited for the Supreme Commander to turn around and walk off, standing a single pace behind and to his left.
"You do know why we are sending you to Navrick right?" One of the High Commanders asked.
"To get that artifact back from them, right? Something that powerful isn't something that should be in the hands of savages," Alexander responded gallantly, believing the mission, itself is a noble cause.
"To some extent, yes you are correct, Captain. But that isn't the only reason," the High Commander came to a halt with Alexander following behind afterward.
"What do you mean, High Commander?" Alexander asked inquisitively, standing and facing the High Commander.
"Since you are part of the Fullbright Family, you have a right to know. We plan on militarizing that weapon for annexation of Bosco," the man said as he turned and started to walk again, with Alexander following behind.
"Bosco? Why Bosco of all places?"
"They have something we want. Something that could turn us into a powerful country. No, into a powerful empire," the High Commander stated, causing Alexander to stop with him walking ahead. This caught the High Commander's attention, causing him to stop and look back towards Alexander.
"The thought of imperialism doesn't appeal to you, Captain Fullbright?"
"Well, our existence is to protect Fiore from rogue mages. It's not our responsibility to become an imperial force. What about the king?" Alexander asked.
The man simply laughed and turned his back and started walking again. Alexander returned to keeping pace with the High Commander. "Don't worry about him. He will know about this in due time."
The whistling of arrows could be heard easily as they started to rain on the battlefield. Alexander quickly grabbed Astrid' hand and started to swing his sword around, deflecting and smashing the arrows as they rained upon them. As he ran, he shouted out. "Destroy the Totems!" Alexander said as he raised his sword into the air once more and changed the flame enchantment on all weapons to an explosive enchantment. "Destroy the totems and break through!"
TAG: @Ami / NOTES: Same deal. No post order, 5 days between posts.
Explosive Enchantment: All RK side members have their weapons enchanted with an explosive enchantment. Any attack made with a user's weapon causes a 30m explosion in a half-circle in front of them, dealing AoE Damage to everything in front of them.
Upon a concussive riar, a matchbox of flame erupted into a wall of flame as all of the whizzing arrows landed. I smirked, and I drew all of the flame around me in a 20 meter line, and enveloped myself in it. Emerging from the dying flame, I felt amazing, more energized. I then turned my attention to the lines of Navrick. Since I couldn't see too well, I shot up into the air, and landed on one of my headless Colossi. Seeing some figures in the crowd that stood out, I tried focusing in, and within the Navrick lines towards the back, I saw a familiar figure: a fellow guildmate, @Meletzo. I sighed, and in the midst of combat, I raised my left hand, and the Colossi opposite to me raised it's arms, and swatted away hundreds of Navrick soldiers, leaving a ginormous hole in their line. As the second faded from existence, I directed the first, raising its' hand, and pried the earth from beneath her. I then said quietly, "I'm sorry." and had the Colossi throw the clod of earth it dug up to the castle, hitting the wall. Watching the dirt explode in a multitude of directions. I then turned solemnly, and heard my commander shout: "Destroy the totems!" I then watched the first Colossi return to the earth from which I made him. I then recalled Isolation from where it waited, and gathered the resentment that had risen from the act which I committed, and and set the point in the earth, and dropped 3 totems within my vacinity into the canyon. Upon reaching the bottom, I watched them explode, without my interference. Confused, I re-gathered the rage into Isolation's ebon blade, and I launched a black line into the flaming line and beyond, cutting men in two.
After composing myself, I channeled my magic intoy hands, and little sprites floated around them. I set them to store themselves until use, and then I waded into non-powered combat with Isolation. The first encounter I had with these non-magical people was unfortunate. They all came at me, and I swiped them aside, cutting each in two.There were a fair number of skilled challengers, however, there weren't able to keep up enough. One person tried coming at me from behind, and all I had to do, was stretch my wing back, and jam the exposed bones into his face. He didn't die from this, I slashed off his head with my scythe when he begged for death. Around me were the litter of corpses from my tirade. I took one look at them, sickened with myself, and flew back to my CO, who was protecting another, with an arrow in his back. Without a word, I pulled the arrow out of his back, and set my hands a glow, and healed him of the wound. I tapped him on the spot where the wound was, and quietly said I'd help protect him.
And while you are sitting indoors waiting for the storm to pass I will be outside dancing in the rain
❧
The ace was snapped back into reality when a hand grabbed and shook her shoulder firmly, hacking away at the wall built up within her mind, separating the harsh scene in front of her from the imaginary scenario she placed herself in instead of being here. Muscles tensed, remembering where exactly she was and what she was supposed to be doing. Fighting in a war. Crimson eyes blinked, head turning to gaze upon Alexander, tilting to the side curiously. Optics swept across the field, as if to confirm even more where she was. "... What?" Astrid questioned, still in a half-daze from her daydream. It wasn't until a sound pierced through the drowned out yelling and clashing of metal, did the slayer completely snap out of it. She heard something rush past her ear, followed by a gust of air, causing her to tense up once more. Then out of nowhere, the Rune Knights captain placed himself in front of her. Stuck in a state of shock it wasn't until the man let out a groan of pain and fell to his knee did she understand what had happened. He protected her, from an arrow that was all too close to shooting straight her her skull. Red eyes widened, horrified. But the leader seemed to bite through the pain, readjusting his weapon to the other arm and continuing forward, grabbing her by the hand and managing to cut through another string of arrows. Normally Astrid may have fainted or gotten ill just at the sight of blood. But everything was happening so fast, and she was so left behind, she couldn't catch up fast enough to properly react to anything. All she seemed to understand, was that the leader wanted her to stick by him. Or, she assumed from his reassuring words. But even when she was running a little behind him, trying to keep up, dodging the enemy troops that got in the way, her eyes would not leave the wound upon his shoulder. It had to be painful, it was enough to allow blood to flow freely. She couldn't just let him continue like this, he was surely losing too much blood, especially with all the moving he was doing. "M-Monsieur. Please, allow me to heal you. That wound looks serious." The young mage pleaded, ready to help the leader out if he allowed it. It was the least she could do to pay him back for saving her. And all it would take is a placement of her hand on his back.
Sensory of the kitsune was blocked, therefore, no magic sensory in the world could get it. And of course, he can't trace her scent since he was not a tanuki, or any beast designed to sniff things out. Despite these two things however, regular senses and peripheral vision was still a thing. At least the fox decided to bark, which alerted him about her before an attempt to leap onto his shoulder had been attempted. His duty was not to let anyone pass, and that was it. So in response, he'd leap back and away from her. Get and stay back if you want any answers. But I guess if you know so much about me, I wonder where your intentions lie with it. And for all I know... The concealed magic he had would be intensified a bit further a bluff call for now provided nothing had been attempted on his life. There was no time to waste either. You could possibly be one of the enemies. I've never met you, so don't expect me to be so trusting. Cautious on the battlefield, but he didn't attack for the risk of attacking an ally was existence. Regardless of the case though, he can't let them through. If an ally, they should be fighting. If an enemy, well... Obviously a fight would ensue. However, this was only if even known in the first place. The downside was that with his tensions high enough, he might have some false evidence that leads him to the truth. No matter the path taken, that would most likely have the same result. Thin ice was being treaded on right now.
OOC- Short post, short post, see you all again in a few days! Happy holidays!
"Now, now~" the little fox responded with a broad, innocent smile. In battle, he definitely seemed serious. She was unable to leap on his shoulder, which ended up with her being forced to alight on her feet, delicately and gracefully as golden eyes gazed back up at him. With a foxy grin, the small Youkai swished her tail back and forth as she continued to speak, displaying a friendly demeanor. "I mean you no harm. Your reputation precedes you, Reiaki-san. You're quite the famous one~" she continued with a wink and light chuckle as she suddenly began to change her form again, back into her Kitsune human shape. Very light pink hair, unlike her human form, large pointy ears that were orange in fur color, and a large fluffy fox tail. She wore a royal blue Eastern-style dress with loose sleeves, a black and white and gold trim, and matching tights. In her head were matching blue ribbons holding up the pink hair behind her eyes.
Along with the brief transformation, Azise allowed some of her 'magic presence' to be revealed. Anyone directly nearby could sense the holy ice magic's aura, showing that she was an obvious demon slayer of some sort. "Name's Azise Riyoshi. I was hired to assist in this war by the Rune Knights, but, fighting's not really my cup of tea," the perky and cheerful fox said with her arms up in a lighthearted shrug. "I saw you weren't doing anything, and came to check up on what was the matter. You're the strongest soldier on the battlefield, aren't ya?" she continued, taking a few steps forward as she casually placed her hands on her hips, giggling slightly. "Probably also came up here just for the bragging rights of saying I met the first God of Ishval, y'know? I hope you don't mind~"
Idle chatter and ramble. This was good. Really, the Rune Knights and the Magic Council had absolutely nothing to protect or any reason to not allow anyone to 'pass' through somewhere. This was an open battlefield, and all out war. If anything, the Navrick side had a place to protect, but that was far away from this stinking war ground. "That being said, what are you doing up here? The action's much more fun down there, really, unless you just prefer to sit back and watch," Azise continued to talk, finally directly asking a question, and beginning to slightly circle him in a flirtatious manner, as could be expected of any Kitsune. "Not that the latter seems so bad. Don't mind if I join you~"
Now that he’d proceeded into the middle of clashes between Rune Knights and Navrick soldiers, the picture looked rather fierce. It was an all-out struggle to push each force back, but despite the excitement, Mura couldn’t let himself waver to spectate. He too was a pawn in the war, in which Kyuken had been upmost confused. The samurai ghost thought of Mura as one who’d rather distance himself from such term as war, given by the events at Midi. What made him return to the battlefield wondered him, but no questions should be asked to him at this moment where another group of now 40 soldiers charged at him. It was way more than the few seven knights whom he’d immobilized a couple seconds ago, but size didn’t always matter. Now, slowly lifting Harusame against them, he expected a struggle to appear at any moment when a certain light engulfed his katana. “Huh… another enchantment?” he mumbled in surprise, before lifting his gaze at the other knights, pointing the edge of Harusame at them. As expected, they took it as a challenge and rushed, only to feel the wrath of an entire explosion in front of them all; unexpected by the Navrick soldiers and by Mura himself. “WAAAHH!!” he roared out in shock by the sudden blast, even turning his back towards them to cover from the launched rocks, “… Phew.”
Apparently, this new enchantment caused an explosion to erupt at the point of impact from his blade. “… ‘I don’t want to use mana, blah, blah, blah’,” the samurai ghost immediately complained. A sweat trickled down Mura’s forehead by the comment, because it wasn’t his mana at all. Heck, he barely used any mana yet. Another blast was launched as another group approached him, and the words that reached his ears earlier made him focus on the totems that were held by every knight now. Those who were hit by the explosion earlier appeared to have survived it, in which they were welcomed by another one. It was an efficient way to safe his mana for whatever target that would require him to utilize his magic…
A huge bombardement appeared on the left flank, a few moments away from Mura's position. Worryingly, he charged up into the air and took a closer look; a huge amount of Rune Knights were taken out there. Forgetting the waves beneath him, he flew towards the same flank, hoping to find whoever caused all this, but as far as went, no one stuck out as the cause yet...
As it seemed now it was alright here. She saw the left flank being bombarded with arrows. Somehow she had to find a way to those totems. She stayed behind the lines of the rune knights deciding to concerve her magic she instead started to throw rocks and debris at the navrick soldiers. Which seemed to irritate them enough so the soldiers of the rune knights could break through close enough to bring Zoey to one totem in the middle of the field. Where she grow two vines to grab it and throw it over head behind the rune knights lines. At least there it couldn't give shields to the navrick soldiers and if it did the normal knights would make short work of it.
Takumi was starting to get annoyed at the seemingly endless crush of soldiers surrounding him, and decided to do something to clear up the crowd a little bit. He spun his scythe before him in a wide and deadly arc, ready to do some serious damage. "Sakura-no-hana! Cherry Blossom Whirlwind!" roared Takumi as he swung the massive scythe forwards. The whole scythe began to dissolve, replaced by thousands of razor-sharp petals that would cut up any who touched them. He directed the blossoms at the nearest Navrick soldiers, carefully avoiding the Rune Knights and his allied mages. The screaming would begin as the petals descended and the blood began to flow from the wounds these petals left behind.
Things were getting interesting, there were various disconnections between the armies, and considering a wizard saint on one side was currently being molested this was turning into a good little war. Maybe the chance to actually strike would be sooner than expected, but at the same time finding someone who was a traitor within the midst of one of the ranks could be a fun distraction. If anything the one who was going to be the traitor probably only had one thing on their mind, stealing the clock. Though her own perceptions of the time stream and other BS that she had Erika knew where the piece was, and sending her last clone to watch over it from another dimension, she would wait for the traitor.
"Don't worry what they are probably after is safe now, along with you, so please keep up the battle and don't start losing."
Just as Nicolette would approach the woman empowering soldiers, she was revealed to have short hair, stoic and wearing a full mercenary attire with an under-shirt and a jet black trench coat, complete with pants and military boots. She chuckled at Nicolette for a moment the cocky smirk on Natalia's face soon turned into an expression of disgust, almost as if she were looking at some lowly insect.
"Oi... perhaps you've forgotten the reason why we're here and that isn't because we decided to ally ourselves with you but an excuse to go against the Rune Knights. For someone who looks as if they were just fresh out of from the dairy, you sure got the nerve to commanding the Hyenas." Of course most of the men she was preaching out to were Navrick natives but were former members of her mercenary group.
"Take my advice, general. You do you and I'll do me, therefore we won't bother anybody but those idiots wearing those poor excuse for battlements." Natalia shot a cold glare as if she was telling nicolette that she could kill the inexperienced war leader at anytime she wanted to but she had reasons for going up against the council, which is why as of now Natalia joins the Navrick side. Treason was far from what natalia's doing but that's because the shaman was doing a poor job at it.
Natalia returns to her post and contacts the advance units via earpiece.
"All siege weapons are destroyed mam but by doing so they have switched to explosives" Unit Ze reports.
"Understood, do not engage the enemy and regroup. Even with your AMP weapons you'll all be torn to shreds against volatile magicks" Natalia ordered as Unit Ze cuts their connections and proceeds to retreat before the RK backlines route them out. Crimzon's display caused Natalia to chuckle out nervously, it was a blessing to have someone like him on their side, in fact there are still more mages like him on the side of Navrick...
...and one of them is late. (Dubhlainn)
Aether's barrage of bone shard projectiles proved effective for a moment until they were all blown off by the seismic explosions caused by the enemy forces, plus there was one problem that they all have to face, and that is the relentless assault of the Rune Knight's hired mages, whereas majority of the support were that of the Golden Phoenix, the Relic coverts. Hero wasn't just a powerful mage, he is one of the representatives of his guild as well and proved to be a very difficult opponent. It was because of him that the Navrick vanguard was shattered to pieces forcing the front lines back to the trenches.
He's a major problem.
What's more they started to lay siege as the kingdom's walls were hit by cold dry earth by Aera's attack. Though the damage wasn't severe, there was need to fear that causalities on their side would be greater than those of the rune knights.
"Convince them to retreat to the trenches, have a few of our men prepare the ice and the fire. We can only buy a couple of minutes before they would go past the great trench" ordered Natalia as her men proceeded with preparations. With little time they have left there's no way to get some of the wounded back into the aidstations while under heavy fire.
But this is where the second phase of the battle plan begins.
Earlier it was mentioned:
Dubhlainn wrote:“The moment you put “THOSE” on you will be faced it adversary and certain death, understand we are fighting a war which we cannot afford to lose. The Navrick Kingdom has in fact has an insufficient amount of manpower on their side but that is why we Mercenaries are here today. Understand that once a soldier steps into a life of war, they can never go home even if they come back alive you will never be the same person ever again.”
Her men that were Navrick citizens geared up and started to suit themselves for battle. The engineering corps were pulling loaded squared leather bags from the cargo and distributed them equally. It was new technology that was meant to combat against all those who uses magic.
"They will be targeting the Totems, this will limit our area of vision control and reclaiming it would only stress the archive mages here. Nicolette's totems are durable and would take a team of knights to destroy it but now that they are empowered by explosives it wouldn't take them a while. What's more they got our forces on the run and they will penetrate through the trench and besiege the doors. Understand that all citizens of Navrick haven't evacuated fully.. buy us some time."
They wore avian goggles and strapped those leather bags to their backs.
The men prepared for combat started lining up in pairs on top of the Kingdom Walls and when everyone was ready, Natalia blew her whistle as the first pair ran towards the edge only to jump and activate their packs that would spread out iron wings with an energy thruster on their backs and flew up high into the skies, followed by the other pairs.
When 8 droves of aerial support were off-ground they began their bombing run. While the Ruune knight mages were making up for the loss of their siege weapons, Natalia's men "The Silver Fang" rose up to the challenge and started to drop highly explosive lacrima bombs at the enemy forces.
"They got explosives, so do we." Natalia puffed out a smoke cloud as she discarded another cigarette. It would prove to be massive chaos for the Rune Knights division, targeting all enemies in columns.
This was the main reason why all rune knight siege and range weapons were taken out, the minimize and heavily decrease their anti-air offensive.
In all their glory they would glide through the skies as the sword breaks away after clearing huge columns of Rune knights and injuring some enemy mages in the area.
"Mmm this is a perfect spot" said Robin as he threw a strange orb out from his pocket and ran back. He is currently located across the perimeter of the battlefield. "Yoh old man, its all done!"
Merlin wasn't present in the area, he was back in his workshop hearing Robin's response over a long distance telepathic array.
"Let us begin then shall we?" Merlin walked to the center of an empty room. Before you know it, lines of glowing magical energy converge at its center almost like the entire place was a electrical circuit and merlin is the conductor.
"Begin... broadcast, the world needs to see this war." And so far everything went according to Merlin's plan as the Orbs Robin planted out rose up high into the air, interjecting and receiving view of the entire map, stealing magical information from the Navrick's wide graphical interface, zooming in on mages and their bloodied performance. Now it was for all to see and without knowledge of the entire Rune Knight Division, Merlin would have broadcast this throughout the entire world. His body glowed with red veins of magical energy as if becoming a core circuit of the broadcast instead of relying on a lacrima.
This was to prevent magical interceptions of any sort to stop the broadcast Merlin channels.
Would they cheer? Would they mourn? Would they protest? What will the world's reaction be? Merlin's victory regardless of the result... assured.
Merlin's Target: @Everyone will be watched by the world
"...." *Click* *Click*
"I pray Natalia's Battle Plan holds out, if the Old wizard is correct then a third party would be imminent, I have to intercept before it happens but...
I thought I told myself that I wouldn't be joining any war but perhaps it was foolish of me to seek peace in Earthland. While there's men.. there will always be war. There are no heroes here..."
Bomber's Targets: @All excluding Elyx who is guarding the key NPC. Each bomb is expected to deal rank damage in Aoe and damage received is equivalent to the target's rank. (Capping to B rank damage for targets equivalent too or higher). Note: Savage Skull supply train used for this battle so it counts.
As Maya tried to figure out how to attach the shield to her arm, a sudden clasp on her shoulder made her jump slightly. The source turned out to be a strange woman, cigar in her mouth, staring at her with utter disdain. So somebody had been watching that display of panic? Great. The woman seemed like a good fighter, though; Maya took up a position behind the woman as she simultaneously lectured the D-Rank mage about some important factors of war and took out a good number of enemy troops. It was good advice, even though she only said two out of three things; self-preservation first, and using surprise tactics. Before Maya could thank the woman for her helpfulness, however, she had urged the green-haired girl to return to the Citadel and vanished.
Maya looked around and realized that the tide of battle had shifted slightly; she was now surrounded by her own troops, rather than in the middle of a clash. A great opportunity to make a hasty retreat like the woman had suggested. The novice mage had barely made it twenty paces, however, before two things happened. First, a shield appeared around Maya, causing her to start. However, she quickly realized that it was the doing of one of the commander's totem and let out a sigh of relief. Glad to know there was some power on Navrick's side as well.
A few moments later, however, the ground below Maya began to roil underneath her. She struggled to retain her footing as she was lifted into the air along with the clump of earth beneath her. A quick check behind her revealed the obvious cause, a massive golem that could only belong to Aera, one of her guildmates. That was one fear realized: There were definitely Lamia Scale members on the other side, and they didn't seem to have qualms about hurting her. Maya didn't have much time to wallow in her despair, however, as the golem hurled the chunk of earth at the walls of the Navrick citadel. The chunk of dirt hit the castle wall and burst into pieces, sending Maya plummeting to the ground several tens of feet below. With nothing else much she could do, the green-haired girl hoisted the shield and prepared for impact.
The ground didn't hurt as much as it should have, probably thanks to the totem's shield, but it still smarted like hell. The shield she had looted had a nasty dent in it now as well; it seemed likely that she wouldn't be able to use it anymore. Oh well. It had kept Maya alive, and that was what mattered. She tossed the shield to the ground as she began to navigate her way towards the entrance to the citadel; at the very least, Aera had given her a fast track towards her base. They'd still have to have a discussion once they got out of here, though.
--
HP: 89 (10 from fall), totem shield broken MP: 119% Posts until regen: 3 Spell cooldowns: Absorb (2 posts)
The Navrick Soldier's could not stand against Shen's raw strength and Martial prowess. The refined Martial Arts from the land of Midi that Shen wielded trumped the Navrick's hack and slash fighting style without fail. With ease he avoided their attacks, and decisively put down every soldier that came before him with a strong thrust of his palm, and lead a spearhead platoon of Knights in to the heart of the Navrick's defensive line. "They're falling like flies! At this rate the battle will be over before nightfall!" The rune Knight holding the line to Shen's right cheered while locking swords with a Navrick soldier. The big blue haired brute, who's locks hung near his waste thrust his enormous sword forward, knocking the Navrick back and ended him with a heavy downward swing and hurriedly found another opponent. "Knock on wood before I knock you out, you big oaf!" A short and slender young man, with faint yellow hair to the big oaf's right shouted. "Quit your whining Rolan, those superstitions of yours are all a bunch of hogwash anyway!" The Oaf retorted. "Rolan! Gram! Focus on the fight in front of you, we can't let this foreigner make us look too useless, can we?!" The Knight directly to Shen's left, who's red hair stood out brightly among the other soldiers. He wore a Captain's shoulder plate, and possessed a strong looking physique. "Yes Captain Siegfried!" "Yes Captain Siegfried" The other two replied. Shen grinned slightly as the Rune Knights rallied behind him. "Hey! You're from Midi right?! What's your name?" The Red Haired captain shouted over the noise of the battle. While grabbing on to and bending the wrist of a Navrick Soldier, Shen turned his head and smiled at the Captain. "I am Shen." The Captain grinned and nodded. "Right then. Shen! Lead the way!"
Team Alpha:
"Just stay close to me, and I'll lead you through this!" Shen promised. The battle was certainly in their favor, until Shen thrust his palm in to the torso of a Navrick Soldier, who's body took the blow. The Rune Knight's swords were also met with the parrying of bare handed soldiers, who's magical shields were too strong for them to penetrate. "Magic! They've got Magic!" Gram shouted. "I told you to knock on wood you damn oaf!" Shen thrust his palm a second time in to the Navrick soldier's belly, this time a great deal harder and thrust him back in to the crowded defensive line, knocking down Navrick Soldier's like pinballs. "In the air! The totem!" Siegfried, a veteran Rune Knight was quick to spot the Totem in the air behind the front line, and identified it as the source of the Navrick's shields. "Shen! You must destroy it, or else our advance will end!" Without a response, Shen immediately leaped in to the air and glided over the enemy soldier's heads.
Spears and arrows were shot at him, but Shen managed to swat them all away with the front and back of his hands, redirecting each shot away from himself. He glided down towards the ocean of Navrick soldiers, and planted his foot on the head of one unlucky individual and propelled himself off of the soldier's head directly towards the Totem. The Martial Artist cocked his elbow back and faced his palm towards the hovering enchanted hunk of wood, and with a mighty thrust of his palm the Totem exploded in to a million pieces and the Navrick soldier's shields shattered upon impact with Rune Knights swords. The sudden loss of their upper hand had left them somewhat off guard, no longer able to rely on the magical shield, and a hefty number of them were cut down due to neglecting their own defense.
Shen landed in the heart of the Navrick Army, several meters away from Alpha team. the Navrick Soldiers were quick to bring their axes and swords down unto the Martial Artist, however Shen was no stranger to being attacked from every angle. He quickly slid his legs apart and bent his knees, and before their weapons were brought down, Shen spun in place rapidly, generating a spherical cyclone of air that rapidly expanded and threw back all enemies within thirty meters. When the rotation completed, a circle would be drawn in the sand, with a wave down the middle reminiscent of a yin & yang symbol. The Rune Knights were quick to push towards Shen's position, and roared with excitement.
Shen had nearly punched a hole directly through their defensive line and had almost reached the trenches on the right flank and things were looking up for Alpha Team and their advance... Until Rolan pointed his finger in to the air and shouted. "The Sky! They're coming at us from the sky!" Individual Soldiers in flight gear were making their way towards the Rune Knight's front line. Shen paused for a moment, and took a step back from the fighting to watch the Bombers lay waste Rune Knights in the distance. Dropping spherical Lacrima bombs on to the battlefield. A squadron flew over Alpha Team and their platoon of Knights, and dropped their bombs over their heads. "I won't let you!" Shen roared, as The earth beneath his feet erupted, sprouting eight enormous cyclones of air, that donned the shape of Dragons. These long and slender wind Dragons ascended 100 meters in to the air and swallowed all of the Lacrima dropped over Alpha Team and company, and Shen himself ascended in to the sky, hitching a ride on one of his creations. The Dragons swallowed all of the Lacrima dropped over Shen's team, and violently exploded from within causing them to vanish all at once, generating gale force winds that would be felt throughout the battlefield.
Shen leaped off the Head of the vanishing Dragon and reached even ground with the Flying soldiers. "I won't allow you to do that again!" Shen roared, as he kicked off the air itself and propelled himself towards one of the flying soldiers. The gear was obviously not meant for fighting in the air, as the soldiers didn't seem too capable of defending themselves from Shen in the sky. The Martial Artist Thrust his palm at the soldier and obliterated the flight gear, causing him to descend towards the earth, behind the Rune Knights front line in a pillar of smoke. the impact of Shen's thrust propelled him towards another flying soldier who was met with the same fate, and Shen repeated this until all flying soldiers flying over the right flank had fallen, and Shen began to descend back down towards the battle...
Aether gritted his teeth as the Rune Knights continued their advance, his arrows stopping their momentum for a moment but they quickly regrouped and continued their advance. It was during the moment when he was preparing his next large volley of bone that he noticed the knight’s weapons lost their flame. Weapon enchantment of this large a scale? He thought to himself, making a sudden turn to head straight to the frontline. Most likely changed to prevent further ranged combat where they appear to be lacking. Best move in for close quarters fighting. Aether judged, bursting through the Navrick frontline along with hundreds of bone fragments as explosions appeared around him. An explosive enchantment? A sword struck his side, the resulting explosion causing his veil to fling up and off his face, dispelling the glamor of his human form and reveal his true face. As the explosion died down a few Rune Knight soldiers approached the blast zone to see if he had burned up, only to see a black silhouette in the flames, eyes glowing red within a demonic skull that seemed to stare into their very souls. The bone fragments that he had prepared had been mostly sent away by the blast yet he remained standing thanks to the barrier of the general’s totem magic. “Well, this is just unfortunate for you all now isn’t it?” Aether spoke, his voice becoming hoarse and rattly as he stared straight at the Knights surrounding him, intimidating one to swing their blade.
But an explosion didn’t happen. Curious at why the explosion hadn’t taken place the soldier looked down at the hand that held the weapon, only to find it was no longer there, but floating in the air above him severed at the wrist joint. Before the Knight could scream in shock the sword was swung down upon them, the resulting explosion charring them and ridding them of their flesh. “Oh, so the enchantment still works if the weapon isn’t attached to the body?” Aether commented, bringing the weapon with hand still attached closer to him. “Perhaps it only works when the wielder is still alive? No, no, no, then the weapon wouldn’t have the enchantment if it was picked up by an enemy.” Aether rambled on, a few brave Rune Knights approaching him with swords raised only to find themselves to a similar fate to the first to fall to his experiment. Their hands severed but the cut sealed by bone as to prevent them from bleeding out. “If my hypothesis proves true, I’d best keep you alive.” Aether announced, as bone knives flew out from his coat, surrounding and binding the knights he had taken the weapons from. “Now then, are there any more volunteers willing to test my theory?” Aether shouted into the lines of knights surrounding him, causing them all to rush him. “Fools.” He whispered under his breath as they all found themselves at a similar fate to the others, hand severed and kept alive together in a giant helpless pile, bone surrounding their severed hands, leaving Aether to obtain 27 weapons from the enemy, complete with enchantments.
Aether proceeded to slowly advance into the rune knight lines, the weapons he obtained being flung around within his sphere of influence created a large line of explosions surrounding him, slaying tens of hundreds of people from the Rune Knight army who had no ability to defend themselves from the explosive force, and not expecting the explosions to be turned back upon their own forces leaving them unprepared Aether advanced towards their main assault force, slaying all knights that came within his range as the barrier of the totems protected him from ranged attacks if they managed to penetrate the explosive barrier around him.
![Senior [500]](https://i.imgur.com/Nmfn8cD.png)
![Novice [250]](https://i.imgur.com/lrYlde6.png)
![Master [1000]](https://i.imgur.com/AQXM4xC.png)
![Grand Master [2000]](https://i.imgur.com/SGD5XSW.png)
